>> thank you. thank you. thank you for coming. this is quite a turnout and i must say i'm a bit overwhelmed. i never imagined a year and a half ago that i'd be standing here on borders books on park avenue, 57 eth street discussing this book. it was around that time that i received a call at work, i was sitting in police headquarters where i work out of for "the new york post," i have a bureau down there. that's where we're based. i received a phone call from judith regan who is the imprint of regan books. she's the publisher. she's part of harper collins. she called me up. i answered the phone and she said listen, murray, do you know anything about john o'neill? i said i was a friend of his but a minor friend, not a close

friend. and she said well, i read something in the newspaper, this was shortly after 9-11 and he died and that he was a counterterrorism expert and he had hunted osama bin laden and i read that he died in the world trade center and i thought that had the beginnings of a possible book, certainly sounded like one. she had published a book about bernie kerick, the new york city police commissioner and as we know is now in iraq trying to build the police force there and she talked to bernie kerick about john o'neill and bernie knew john o'neill and he said he was quite an extraordinary man and important man and half convinced her that a book was possibly -- was possible about john o'neill. she spoke to a few other law enforcement people and convinced there was the potentially good book and asked them who she might reach out to write a book about john o'neill and they steered her to me so around

thanksgiving of 2001, john o'neill was now 2 e 1/2 months dead. i, as a friend, had attended his funeral. i had no idea i was going to embark on this journey. this was a blind phone call. i met with her twice and said would you be interested? and i said yeah. i didn't know at the time how extraordinary a man john o'neill was. i didn't have a clue how extraordinary a project it would be. i didn't have a clue how difficult a project it would be. in fact, she said to me, she goes, murray, you might have to do some research for this book, right? how long do you think it would take? i said with all due respect, miss regan, you just did a book with bernie care i can. he's alive. and you can interview him in about four or five weeks and you have 80% of your book. john o'neill was a man that few people knew. he was involved in a very secretive universe, in charge of counter espionage and counterterrorism which is what he became famous for and lastly, he worked for the f.b.i. and his

connections weren't in the intelligence divisions so by definition, this was not an agency, bureau or universe that was open to reporters asking questions much less getting answers. so i said to her, well, i think i could do it in a year having done a previous book, i knew it would take at least that long. i lied. it actually took a year and a half. and bits and pieces of interviews, hundreds and hundreds over months and months and a ton of research, the life and times of john o'neill came alive to me and i began to see truly what an extraordinary man he was and what an extraordinary place he had in the entire history of trying to fight terrorism during the second half of the 1990's and right up to the day he died in the world trade center. in fact, i don't want to be too humble here and demonstrate my lack of knowledge, but one of the first interviews i had was with a counterterrorism expert in washington who worked in the washington field office and i went to see him and he was

rattling off all these cities around the globe and bombings, things i never even heard of but i sat in front of him taking notes on a yellow legal pad, the f.b.i. people don't like to be taped. i guess they want a little denyability but i took, you know, copious notes and for two hours, he was telling me things and i'm smiling like i know what i'm doing, i'm a criminal justice writer of new york post and he met a couple of things like the sang bomb in saudi arabia, things i never knew of and now i know what the o.p.m. sang is, the office of program managers saudi arabia national guard but at that time, i walked out of his office and stood near my car and said, what the hell was this guy talking about? but all of these little stories, all of these little interviews, all the research began to give me my own little dots that i connected to like a pointless painting and started moving them around and began to see the extraordinary tale of john o'neill and where john o'neill fits and why john o'neill is so

important is almost frutitive but a creation of the sheer genius, brilliance, determination and drive of an extraordinary person. in 1995, john o'neill was called upon to take over the counterterrorism program in washington. he had been in an assignments in baltimore and chicago and had done some extraordinarily out of the box kind of law enforcement. in chicago, he created this model task force that literally destroyed the chicago gangs that had the projects held hostage during the early 1990's. he was promoted to become the counterterrorism chief in washington and he drove all night from chicago to washington in typical john o'neill fashion. he didn't go to a hotel. didn't go to his apartment. he drove into j. edgar hoover's building, went into his office. started putting knickknacks on his shelf and the phone rang on a sunday morning and it was a call from a counterterrorism boss at the white house and said

they had a tip on where ramsay yousef was. ramsay at the time was the world's most wanted fugitive. he was the mastermind of the 1993 bombing here at the world trade center and john o'neill from that moment to the next 72 hours didn't sleep, stayed in the command center of the f.b.i., orchestrated the capture of ramsay yousef from pakistan and the rendition of ramsay yousef that brought him back here to the united states of justice. renditions are a complicated matter from the capture of a guy in a hotel room to flying him back to the united states and organizing military planes to refuel in mid air to bring a fugitive here so he never touches the ground and they can never lose him. anyway, from that moment on, in 1995, at the beginning of 1995, john o'neill immersed himself in the counterterrorism world. and within weeks literally had to capture ramsay yousef he was in the halls of the f.b.i.

telling the national security directors there, people at the c.i.a. and right up through the white house that the number one threat to the united states of america was osama bin laden. john o'neill recognized right away that the islamic fundamental movement headed by bin laden wasn't some minor financier, this is a man building a huge network of mujahadeen jihaddists that drove the russians out of afghanistan and they had beaten one devil, one humongous superpower in a great standing army and they saw the united states as the other devil and they wanted him out of the muslim lands. they were going to attack us. and they were going to continue to attack us until we leave and they would come in here to the united states of america and he tried desperately over the next six years of his life to convince everybody he came in contact with here in the united states and by forging relationships around the world, after the capture of ramsay yousef, john o'neill led the investigation into the kobar

tower bombings in saudi arabia and in my book, you actually go with john o'neill and the agents who went to saudi arabia and in spite of all the negative news about the f.b.i. and lord knows i've they've made mistakes and deserve the criticism when they received it. the agents who go on these events not unlike the ones today that are in iraq dealing with the u.n. headquarters, the bombing of the u.n. headquarters, they fly in military planes with very little comfort. they fly into these countries where the heat is extraordinary and in the case of the koba rr towers, there were no bathrooms. the buildings were destroyed and you get to see that these people like have to drink water every 20 minutes or they passed out to do work on the f.b.i. for the united states of america. there's another flip side to this. in addition to that, say in the kobar towers case, you get to see first hand and early on how the saudi arabians prevented our

agents in the country from leaving the ground from a kobar tower bombing to question people who live in the neighborhood to see if they knew what was going on. but from saudi arabia, john o'neill he led the investigation into the two twin tower bombings in africa where he's credited with creating a template for all international investigation. he led the charge in yes, ma'amen. and u.s.s. cole bombing, he ran into another opponent who was more formidable than the yemenis themselves, he ran into the formidable force of the united states ambassador. barbara boudine who tried to obstruct practically everything he tried to do and after about four or five weeks there when he returned to new york, john was 2 e 5 pounds lighter. and louie freeh asked him to return to yemen to jump-start the investigation and barbara

bodine blocked his return. she wouldn't grant him what is called country clearance. he became the first f.b.i. official in the history of this country to be denied entry into a foreign country by a united states official. and at the end of the call, a bizarre thing happened where she wouldn't let the f.b.i. leave at all. when john o'neill thought the threat level was high, she ordered the marines to hold them hostage, a bizarre stand-off that had to end with a call from washington telling them to let the agents go. that's kind of the incredible saga of where john o'neill, a man who was never in the newspapers, people didn't really know who he was but from 1995, he led every single major investigation that had anything to do both with international terrorism and actually domestic terrorism, t.w.a. 800 report was wrip by john o'neill. the downing or turns out to be a

suicide of crazy co-pilot but the downing of egyptair, oklahoma city, john o'neill was the man who organized the efforts in oklahoma and all the while, all the while constantly telling the f.b.i., c.i.a. and the white house, yet the single greatest threat, osama bin laden. in fact, as far back as 1995, he actually compared bin laden to a young adolf hitler and he said bin laden is like hitler when hitler wrote "mein kempf." what he writes and what he says is what he's going to do. every time he speaks, we have to pay attention. unfortunately for john o'neill and to a large degree to this country, john became disillusioned in the f.b.i. he wasn't supported enough. his calls, his call over the years to get people to line up and recognize that bin laden was the great threat was falling on deaf ears. in addition, john o'neill was a

very unusual man. he was want the cookie cutter f.b.i. agent. he dressed very flamboyantly, he enjoyed shivas regal and hung out in the best restaurants wherever he worked when he was in baltimore, washington and chicago. he got around with boundless energy. he'd go out four hours. people who knew him thought he was this bat that would hang in the corner for a few hours, catch a few hours sleep and emerge dapper and dressed as though the day -- as though he was fresh as a daisy and the day was just starting and yet, while most of them even the ones who have great energy to keep up with him went to sleep, they would wake up in the morning and be emails from john o'neill at 2:30 in the morning, listen, this is what we have to do in saudi arabia, this is what we have to do in yemen. what's going on with this or that? they were amazed at the man, not just devotion, just devotion to the country, his patriotism, his efforts on behalf of the country, they were amazed in

addition to the fact he was a man who not only saw the dots and connected them, he knew there were dots and connected them before other people even knew there were dots. but all of his efforts to getting people to understand the great threat that was -- that was growing against the united states, he left in august of 2001. he left an agency that he loved. he used to tell people "i am the f.b.i.." he grew up in atlantic city. ever since he was 9 years old, he dreamed of becoming a f.b.i. official. he was super patriot. he was an incredible character and a man that had so much charm after he died and i began to do research on him, i was amazed at how many people came over to me and said they knew john o'neill. in fact, i did a fox television show the other day and a guy, i come off, four minutes on television, i come off and two people come running over to me.

my mother used to date john o'neill. they used to correspond for years. she loved him. and john was that kind of guy. and in fact, he was a very complicated man. but the beauty of him was he was a man that was focused most of all on the mission and the mission was his job at the f.b.i. in working counterterrorism. unfortunately, when he left the f.b.i., he took a job and downsized his war with osama bin laden. he took a job as a director of security at the world trade center. right up until the night before he died, john o'neill was telling everybody over dinner, they were half joking with him, you're out of game now. isn't it amazing, you know? you're taking a job at the world trade center that once hit and get very serious and you're going to keep coming at this building until they take it down. and he also said something big was going to happen. as late as saturday -- as late as the night before september

11th. on september 11th, he was in the towers when they were struck. he went and helped some children out of the daycare center. there were two frenchmen and took video as many people knew they were following a young probationary fireman around and they were in the world trade center filming the probationary fireman when the towers were attacked. and john o'neill is in that video. you can actually see him for several minutes and then at one point he starts walking towards the south tower. actually i interviewed an f.b.i. agent who was probably the last person to talk to him in the towers. and he said to john, he said hey, john, i missed your little coffee retirement party at the f.b.i. and john o'neill turned around him and smiled, had this great smile, trademark smile and he said don't worry, wes, you know, when things calm down here, we'll get together and have lunch and john continued walking down the corridor to the south tower.

and he died when the south tower collapsed but even in a great tragedy like that, one of his phone calls, his last phone calls on his cell phone was amazingly in a way, he made phone calls to his loved ones but john called an agent, los angeles based agent and the two of them, this agent had been with john in yemen and on a quiet night they debated whether the world trade center would be struck again. john, there he was, he came out of the tower at one point trying to assess the damage of this horrible carnage around him. but he called pat paterson and on his cell phone and said see, i told you so. that was kind of john o'neill. leaving it in a tremendous crisis, the guy was calm, cool and always a little bit of charm and wit about him. but his body was found unlike most of the people, john's body was found and i happen to know some detectives who were working in the morgue by coincidence so in my book, there's a very

poignant scene about how his body was found and carried out of the remains of the world trade center and how they stood outside and saluted at his remains, the flag draped remains as they brought it into the morgue and john was given a very dignified hero's ending. difficult for me to talk about it sometimes. but in any event, i don't want anybody to think that there are lessons in john o'neill's life and many of the things he fought for are now kind of his legacy, he was a man who argued against perceiving terrorist issues as a law enforcement matter where like the world trade center number one attack just identified the suspects, lucky enough to catch them. you bring them back to justice and case closed. he was a man who saw there were broader, more important things taking place. he recognized that the islamic fundamental movement of bin laden was far more formidable and dangerous. law enforcement and the

government like these tiny little packages, you know. small cases, small problems, big cases, big problems. no cases, no problems. and john was a man who saw that this was a big case, he was the kind of guy that brought a tremendous amount of energy to it. he attracted people to the mission to accomplish it. he wasn't the cookie cutter kind of f.b.i. guy, the culture at the f.b.i. has changed post 9-11. they recognize that mavericks like john o'neill who can only rise so high in the agency are the people they should sbrace also, john o'neill fought desperately to break down the walls of the intelligence in law enforcement community. he recognized that the c.i.a. and the f.b.i., everybody is turf oriented. they like to keep their information. they like to protect their turf. in 1995 not long after he caught ramsay yousef, he did an extraordinary thing. he went to the c.i.a. and designated a c.i.a. official to be his deputy as a counterterrorism official underneath him inside the, you know, the coveted halls of j.

edgar hoover's f.b.i. building so in a small microcosmic way, it demonstrates just the kind of forward thinking man he was in breaking down walls and that's happened now post 9-11. he also tried desperately to get the white house to recognize that bin laden was not just some terrorist threat that was going to happen overseas, that he was coming here to the united states, he made a very famous speech, john did, in 1997 two years after he was already beginning to talk about bin laden where he argued that the fundamentalists and the islamic movement had the capabilities to strike america at any time. and he was pounding away at that point and he was trying to explain that we are -- he is at the cutting edge of a war and that the united states government has to recognize that law enforcement is not the way to deal with this. they needed a state department and white house policy change where this was a military issue which is kind of unique because john o'neill had finally after

one point was the man who was given all the power to head the counterterrorism effort and he was willing to relinquish it which is rare in a government position. he wanted the government to recognize that the military would be brought to bear on this, that we're at war. unfortunately those type of warnings were not listened to. now, the great wake-up call of 9-11 and the last little piece that actually is quite a bit brilliant part of john o'neill, john o'neill had a tremendous amount of friends here. wherever he worked, people loved him but he was equally as loved all around this planet. he had friends in england, in hamburg, in spain, he interfaced with intelligence officers and law enforcement people all over this planet. he was friends with royalty, he was friends with kings and queens. and fortunately now, you see that post 9-11 this vast, you know, network of law enforcement

and intelligence people, they now and it's a network that john o'neill by personality kind of forged, now all in place working together and while these tragic bombings in iraq, israel and continued bombings in the philippines by al-qaida related organizations is not al-qaida directly. the kind of myths in the newspaper that five people were picked up in hamburg, seven people were picked up in italy that were al-qaida people. six people were picked up in morocco. 20 people arrested in the philippines. these are all the work of the law enforcement people that john o'neill was friends with. so i decided to even though he died and it seems like a great tragedy, john o'neill had a very short and it was cut short life and i think in some ways, he was the kind of guy who knew he would never live a long life and it was a theme that runs sort of through the book but he had a very great life and even though he died young, he actually had a

life that most people would kind of admire. and i've chosen a little -- at least a first little portion to try to read here and that would be more illustrative not of the sadness of mixed signals and the dots that weren't connected or that john o'neill died a young man trying to warn america so ie been asked to read something and i've decided that i'm actually going to read something that is the prologue which is a quick little anecdotal story that i don't mind actually telling. i worked on a prologue for probably three weeks, maybe more and it surrounded the african bombings actually because i really believe that's the most important incident in the history of terrorism vs. the united states. that was the defining moment on how we were going to deal with it. and i thought that's where i started my book, not on 9-11

which most books that have anything to do with 9-11 they start with 9-11 because it's such a gripping beginning because i guess i didn't want to go with the grain and i thought i'd go where i thought the most important story was and that at least in the six to 10-year history of osama bin laden and the al-qaida network and the threat to the united states, so i got a call towards the end of this project from the editors of the book who said can you get mary jo white to write a forward for this book. mary jo white was the manhattan attorney here in new york and it was her office that prosecuted every major terrorist captured by the united states and in fact, it's her office that presently has osama bin laden under time. -- indictment. if he's ever caught anywhere, he's caught based on an indictment here in lower manhattan for the african bombing and the blackhawk down incident, somalia in 1993. anyway, she calls me up and says can you get a forward, perhaps,

from mary jo white, she didn't like his flashy style and hanging out in saloons, she likes her bureaucratic -- she likes her f.b.i. people to be a little more demure as she admits. she agreed she wrote a two-page introduction, that's very nice on point and it's perfect on the sheer horror of the terrorist threat and also what a great guy john o'neill was. then he told me listen, murray, we think you're prologue about the african bombing case belongs in the african bombing chapter. and they plucked out from the middle of the book, i think quite brilliantly what is now the prologue and that's what i've chosen to at least what i've chosen, give it a shot here. i've been around so long, i need glasses to read. i don't do this very often so you'll forgive me. writer summed up the pecking

order at elaine's restaurant in new york in a july 2002 "vanity fair" article describing the four levels of greetings from the legendary restaurateur. she gave a nod of the head to newcomers, handshake to semiregulars, peck on the cheek to her regulars and finally, for her favorite few, there was a standup kiss and hug. john p. o'neill, the self-styled secret agent and the new head of the f.b.i.'s national security division in new york, had been a fixture in the best spots in town from chicago and washington to rome, paris and cairo. but his first few times at elaine's in 1991, he was just another face at the bar. he didn't rate even the obligatory nod when he first walked through the double wooden doors, took a spoot -- spot in the crowd and elaine's famous bartender. o'neill's anonymity at elaine's did not last long. he made an impression at the celebrity studded saloon

entertaining hunters from scotland yards, the real james bond of the united kingdom. tom carney recalled looking out from behind the bar and seeing o'neill sitting with pals from scotland yard and a few days later, turning on the television and seeing the same investigators back in england searching for clues inside the crime scene tape after a bombing. other foreign terror hunters followed. some were from the spanish national police. others from hamburg. and eventually saudi and yemeni secret police. one wintery night in february, o'neill breezed into ee lane's with a group of officials in new york who were there for an investigation of the bombing. o'neill went out and purchased overcoats for them using his credit cards so they wouldn't freeze. they were sitting around wearing coats that didn't quite match their clothes, eating steaks and pasta, elaine recalled with a chuckle. o'neill's flare for stylish entertaining may have reached a

high point during an official visit from the saudi crown prince's security detail, a year after the kobar towers bombing that left 19 american servicemen dead and another 400 people wounded. word reached john o'neill when the saudis had visited washington they were treated with little fanfare. he was appalled. that was not the way to treat people that consider themselves royalty. many were, in fact, from the royal family and had to be treated accordingly if the f.b.i. was going to make headway into winning their friendship and cooperation. o'neill insisted the saudis come to new york. we put them up at the plaza hotel and wined and dined them wowing them with the o'neill tour of the attractions of the big apple. submitted an eye popping $25,000 in expenses for the short visit which sent shock waves through the bureau and infuriated the bean counters. but o'neill was not one to deny himself the pleasure of entertaining visiting agents and v.i.p.'s and the way he felt was appropriate and recharging his batteries at fancy establishments. he was a regular at bruno and kennedy's as well as elaine's.

f.b.i. agent vincent sullivan, counterterrorism agent recalled joining o'neill on several occasions to the restaurant. once he sat in the piano lounge with a scotch in one hand, cigar in the other. on another occasion, o'neill and sullivan were joined by several visiting terrorist investigators from madrid. o'neill gave them the full treatment. dinner, wine and song and gestured for a cigar box to be brought to the table. "it was the size of a small child's casket" sullivan said assuming the humidor belonged to the restaurant's stylish owner. no, the humidor's mine, o'neill corrected him. sullivan still laughs thinking about the impression o'neill made on the spaniards that night. they loved them, they said, they were j.p.o.ed. o'neill's unique style of doing business was not what distinguished him from other more conservative, it was what

distinguished him from more conservative agents. he ran up huge debts entertaining foreign visitors at his own expense but his ability to j.p.o. foreign officials and agents whether they were visiting new york or o'neill and assisted them in the f.b.i. in carrying out a commission all over the world. because of this extensive network contacts and own exhaustive knowledge of the subject, john o'neill was notablely one of the first people in counterterrorism to understand the threat posed to the united states and its interest abroad by islamic fundamentalists particularly al-qaida. he established a desk in f.b.i.'s new york office dedicated to monitoring osama bin laden and his al-qaida network and remained convinced throughout the last six years of his career that the terrorist leader who masterminded the 1998 bombings of two american embassies in africa, the 1993 blackhawk down incident in somalia and the u.s.s. cole

bombing in 2000 would eventually strike on u.s. soil. the prologue continues but that gives you a true flavor of the man. it ends with a quote from john o'neill saying that if passion holds all his wealth and all his liabilities, it is the best in me and it is the worst of me but it is me. this prologue speaks a great deal with john o'neill the man who -- the man who by a sheer will tried to get people in this country to understand what was going on and also at the same time spent all this time traveling around the world. if i have time, i have one or two other tiny little snipets i'd like to read, if that's ok. people. just to give you a small flavor of the history of john if i may. in march of 1995, john o'neill

was in his office, he was now the fresh, new head of the counterterrorism bureau and sort of what i wrote to give you an idea about how far ahead of the curve he was. back in march 61995, john o'neill was scrambling to get more information. he spent much of the night of march 8th pouring over bin laden's words in his latest communique and putting f.b.i. on the al-qaida leader. in the morning, o'neill spoke with the c.i.a. to learn their assessment of bin laden's latest diatribe and reached out to the national security council and other government agencies for their source information on the al-qaida leader. a few days later, bear bryant, the head of the national security division for the f.b.i. held what he described as one of his morning a meetings that began promptly at 7:30 a.m. you better be there on time and you better be prepared bryant told o'neill. he was aware that o'neill worked both ends of the candle pretty

hards he put it. he didn't care where he was the night before or how tired he was or if he showed up in his slippers and pajamas, just be there, he told them and o'neill always was. his developing belief that osama bin laden was in fact the world's most pressing threat. his frantic study had indicated to him a pattern among fundamentalists, islamic radicalists and bin laden and his organization was right in the center of the web. he never forgot the inside of the o'neill show that day in alerting a problem that plagued every united states law enforcement official from there to come. the first time i heard about bin laden was from john o'neill. he started explaining that bin laden was the relative of a wealthy saudi family and they had a construction company and left for the sudan basically identified as a state sponsored terrorism. o'neill told bryant in the other f.b.i. officials about bin laden's history of fighting with the mujahadeen against the soviets and he had turned his hatred towards america because he viewed america policies

undermining the islamic world. he explained a terrorist with bin laden's kind of wealth, money and connections could cause america enormous harm. he wrapped up his presentation saying he was trying to glean more information and prompting them to glean more information from bin laden. less than a month into his new job, he began discussing bin laden with the national coordinator of counterterrorism and national security director. he compared bin laden to a young adolf hitler making ominous threats that no one took seriously and it's like mein kempf. when you read what bin laden says he's going to do, that's what he's going to do. he's serious. there are a lot of people who support him. bin laden was raking in doy nations from sympathizers around the world and had to be taken seriously, what he says he's going to do is go to war with the united states. and richard clark acknowledges that most people at that time never heard of al-qaida.

he says they would have said hezbollah or hamas, most people wouldn't have known there was an al-qaida. not john. he knew what al-qaida was and he understood how it worked and delivered a warning to richard clark. bin laden's network extended inside the united states, inconceivable they're not here. john o'neill. >> if i may move forward a little bit. in that speech, in chicago, chicago athletic association, continental room on michigan avenue. i write here that he traced a chillingly accurate picture of the danger posed by islamic fundamentalism and his potential to release a virulent strain of terrorism on the world. old ideas had to be updated. he explains to the spellbound gathering old risk assessment model was advised. understood in the context of muslim thinking and had to be

factored into our thinking of how twisted people could use this theme to create large acts of violence. he wrote at the time of the world trade center bombing, they were putting most of the eggs into the basket of the states that sponsor terrorism. he went on to say if you look at the world trade center bombings people that had been charged and convicted, they were egyptian, pakistani, kuwaity, iraqi and even u.s. persons all coming together. individuals pretty much identified because of their freedom to move across borders, they are bound by a jihad, religious belief as opposed to any nation or state that can quickly assemble or disperse. they beat the russians and beat one of the largest standing armies. and he said it would be a terrible mistake to be lulled into the assumption these terrorist groups would never take action on u.s. soil. various organizations have a presence in the united states today. that's in jupe of 1997, heavily involved in recruiting.

heavily involved in fundraising activities. we have found in some instances, engagements in small arms, weapons training and one specific instance, explosives and then he said, pathetically almost all of these groups today if they choose to have the ability to strike us here in the united states. they're working toward that infrastructure. we cannot be isolationists in terms of law enforcement efforts. and then he went on to say at the end of this speech, he concluded by saying i think interesting times lie ahead. certainly we as citizens will be challenged. i know the f.b.i. will continue to be challenged in the years to come. unfortunately, i cannot predict that no americans will be injured or killed as a result of the terrorist attack and in fact, it will happen as long as violence is seen the way to move along political and social agendas. interesting. i'm going to read two more little snipets and that will be

it. one is the africa bombings. after bill clinton launched attacks on counterattack against the -- the bin laden -- very weak limped response. turps out that the f.b.i. was not informed about these strikes and that he had 500 agents in two muslim countries who were walking targets for any kind of retaliation. and john o'neill was in the command center when that happened and his first reaction, although military strike back at bin laden was exactly what he hoped for, he said -- he was actually indignant because he realized although this was, you know, the kind of response he was hoping for he claimed that clinton was using very outdated

information. not nearly fresh enough to justify the launch of the surgically precise air strikes. he turned to a detective from the joint terrorist task force and said if they were going to use the information, they should have used it when we gave it over. worst still for o'neill, he soon learned he was not the only f.b.i. figure the white house had failed to notify. amazingly, the white house has failed to inform clinton's them i says louie freeh. the f.b.i. director was furious, not just because he wanted to be in the loop, his agents were stationed in two heavily muslim cunlts that were loaded with bin laden's sympathizers, the agency had given them no warning whatsoever and unprepared for a potential retaliatory strike that could have come in the way of an attack. louie freeh was pissed, said the head of the f.b.i. office and he was with louie freeh at the time. worst still, worse still, it turns out that the united states

told the pakistani intelligence they were going to do this which would have seemed like domestic courtesy. the pakistani intelligence, they have ties to the taliban. taliban turned it over to bin laden so any attempt to get him was doomed by the united states officials. on the last, the last thing, i'm not going to read from it. i'm not going to read from it, the incident in the u.s.s. cole, john o'neill and i think i might actually, only two or three paragraphs so i might actually read them for you. father's day june 16, 2001, john o'neill led the charge into yemen to investigate the bombing of the cole, extraordinary event and quite a fascinating story but the most fascinating incident is this one that i alluded to earlier, a couple of

paragraphs. on father's day june 16, o'neill gave the order for the f.b.i. to pull out. the u.s. ambassador was livid and insisted she was the only one to order an f.b.i. pullout and told the embassy's heavily armed marine guards and security personnel to block f.b.i. agents from leaving. about 20 agents found themselves face to face with marines who refused to unlock the entrance of the embassy compound. what are you going to do, shoot us? an agent with the on scene f.b.i. commander demanded. bodine wanted him to leave at least two agents behind. they nixed that idea. we arrive as a team. we leave as a team. the bizarre stand-off lasted several hours as a caravan of military vehicles waited to take the agents to the airport. the ambassador was ordered by her superiors to release the agents from the compound and the f.b.i. departed in yemen completely. the f.b.i. team flew 16 hours before finally landing at mcguire air force base the following morning and they disembarked at 6:00 a.m., they

found john o'neill standing on the tarmac dressed perfectly in a suit and looking as fresh as a daisy. waiting to greet them with compliments of other agents to drive them home. i'm glad you're safe, he announced before personally shaking the hand of each agent and doling out his patented trademark bear hugs. that's kind of man john o'neill was. i wouldn't be surprised if he drove there directly from elaine's restaurant. to tell you the truth. in the one or two days i actually prepared for this presentation, i looked through the september 11th chapter to see what i can read there and quite frankly, while as i said before, you know, most books that have any relationship with 9-11, open with 9-11 because it's such a powerful gripping account, no matter what you choose on any level. as i thumb through it and i tried to find something briefly to read, i realized i couldn't make through it to read it. i'm not going to. the only thing i might read, i'm going to try. only two more paragraphs. i don't think i'm going to get

through this one. i'm going to try. john o'neill when -- at his funeral, there were like 1100 people there. there were people from various law enforcement places around the world, obviously, people from washington, director of the f.b.i. was there. and a great cast of people, restaurateurs, people from the media, people from business, security, representatives, he was a great friend of cardinal o'connor, the -- this man had a palm pilot that was programmed by geography. he could call anywhere in the world and in the phone call get somebody on phone. just extraordinary. but at the end of the ceremony, they -- they brought john out and this is -- this is the end to service. actually to digress, his son read a letter that john o'neill wrote to his grandsons, newborn grandson that the entire cathedral was in tears.

which, of course, i can't even begin to think of reading here luckily for, i guess, everybody here. but this is how this chapter ends. the 2 1/2 hour service ended with the playing of the mournful irish ballad "danny boy" which o'neill loved. which now could be heard over loudspeakers through the streets of atlantic city. when his body was carried from the chapel, a police honor guard lined up in the middle of pacific street and salute the his flag draped casket. final funeral procession drove to the holy cross cemetery and may's landing escorted by a dozen motorcycle cops. the limousines passed firefighters in full dress saluting o'neill's hearst as it moved slowly past the firehouses. hand painted banners saying thank you, john for all you did. decorated the streets and as the procession disappeared to the cemetery, the army helicopter continued to hover above the cathedral as the sign of the bagpipes again filled the air. "john would have loved this" agent gary stevens said. this was the big show. that was john o'neill.

he was an extraordinary larger than life man. i don't think many people really knew him. he had a very compartmentalized personal life. he loved people. he loved being out. he loved the women and most of all, he was a super patriot who truly loved america and tried desperately to prevent the incident that took his life and thousands of others. on that note, i'm finished. i'll take any questions. sorry it's a little difficult to read some of these sometimes. john was a friend of mine. i'll take any questions. yes, sir? you have to wait for the microphone. >> oh. mr. weiss, was -- >> mr. weiss was here. he's my father. i'm murray.

>> did john o'neill think there was a saudi in 1995 in oklahoma city? >> did he think there was a saudi in -- >> in 1995 in -- >> in oklahoma city. to answer you quite bluntly, no. in fact, in my book, john o'neill was in charge of the oklahoma city bombing case and while everybody was immediately speculating that it also was an islamic fundamentalist or middle eastern terrorist attack, he was in fact the first person to say in the f.b.i. headquarters and i quote people who were there, this book is not unnamed sources and it's not fiction. everything is on the record with people, remarkably actually. he said to them, today is the anniversary of waco. don't go jumping into any conclusions. so, you know, there were people who think there's a broader conspiracy than that case but i have to say that john o'neill is an investigator like a guy rooting a bone up, a dog rooting a bone up. he generally was a guy who never close a case out until all the

i's and t's were dotted and crossed. in oklahoma city, i think he recognized right away what the focus probably would be. anyone else? >> murray, thanks for your presentation and thanks for the time line. i just want to ask you -- >> took me days to do that. let me tell thaw. >> terrific. in january 2001, this ambassador bodine as you referenced to blocked him. is it just this guy's personality and what he was about his patriotism and stuff that rocked a lot of the bureaucracy wrong because he didn't fit that kind of mold? >> gentleman's question was it his personality that kind of rocked people he dealt with that maybe actually contributed to the ambassador at yemen having

reasons to try to control, a bluff direct person. he was the person who felt that he was on a very large mission that was -- that business he was involved in was beyond serious and when he went to meetings and discussions he was direct to people about what he thought but he was the kind of guy that welcomed confrontation and conversation if the goal was, if the goal was to argue, he he felt that they were going to try to work something out for the better good. generally, however, he was. didn't win them over by being correct, he had such charisma and charm that he wound up winning you over, too. he couldn't win over the ambassador to yemen. it was his last posting and she

was a woman who wanted to control everything. she probably thought she knew more than she did. she probably also was very concerned about her image at the end. she did in fact, she put a little bit of her reputation on the line by having the united states bring ships back to yemen and i guess the bombing to some degree was an embarrassment anything else? way in the back. >> wonderful and lucid reading, i want to compliment you on that. my question is -- >> compliment, you'll have to speak louder. i can't hear it. repeat it four times. >> ok. my question is when you are an investigative reporter, how do you stay biased or unbiased because i can see you're very passionate about this subject matter. how did you keep it together when you were doing this? >> that's a good question. i don't really know. the honest answer is while i

knew john o'neill, you would assume that there's some bias here. in his camp, the truth is i didn't know much about john o'neill. you know, he was a man that was in a universe that he had to be secretive about and he had a very complicated personal life that he kept secret from everybody including the various women that loved him. he -- when i embarked on it, i really had a blank page but i really started at ground zero. in fact when i called the f.b.i. and said i was interested, perhaps, in doing a book on john, they faxed me his resume which was filled with all these, you know, acronyms for stuff and he was a chief inspector for bathcon and i'm looking at it and i'm going what the hell is this, and i'm going, this isn't going to be a half page in a book. but the creation of the book was

what she said, and i started talking to people. peculiar process, you talk to somebody and say what do you know about john o'neill? you might tell a little story. i'll give you a quick one. i met -- i finally met some guy that knew him in baltimore when he worked in baltimore and he told me yeah, we went to mcdonald's, his son, my son, they were on a track team. gee, i had a little human interest there and the agent said to me, you know, years later, john o'neill sent me to ippeda -- india on a case. like really? he told me like 20 seconds of it. anyway, that was the end of it. it ourns out that after the oklahoma city bombing case, the president of the united states signed something he called the presidential directive number 39 and gave the f.b.i. the lead in terrorism investigation so john o'neill became the guy in charge of all international and domestic terrorism investigations. the muddied area where terrorism fell now was under john o'neill and it was only because of oklahoma city but in any event,

john o'neill is a new section chief with this authority. who was the first person he sent overseas when he had an opportunity was that agent so something that was said to me months earlier that had no meaning to me, it turned out there was a kidnapping in india, an american was killed and still hasn't recovered the body. the people that had committed that terrorist act as it turns out and what's in the book, they wound up kidnapping daniel pearl the wallet wall journal -- "wall street journal" reporter to killed him. i'm happy to hear about john o'neill and his son, suddenly the guy drops something else on me that was a little almost disingenuous. i didn't care. suddenly it had real poignancy so that's -- it was hundreds and hundreds of interviews and people saying gee, i don't know anything about the kobar towers and i said you know? why don't you go find ray mizlah, a supervisor in saudi arabia. he works at dupont.

i called him up. hi, i'm murray weiss, i write for "the post" i'm doing a book on owe john o'neill. yeah, i'm the on-scene commander and he talked about it. he told me what happened. how the saudis stood in his way. how they wouldn't let them leave the ground. i know something about the kobar towers now. and we chitchatted, it was very insightful. now i'm making small talk. did you go to dupont after you were in the f.b.i.? no, no, what did you do? i went to the c.i.a. you went to the c.i.a.? what did you do at the c.i.a.? i was a director of worldwide security. i'm like whoa! talk about hitting the bonanza. we chitchatted about that. and thanks to talking to me, we went to dupont after they started working at the c.i.a. no, no, what did you do then? director of national security council at the white house. i'm like whoa, whoa, whoa. and he's start shedding some

light of what's going on in the white house and meanwhile, now i didn't have some -- with all due respect to the f.b.i., i didn't have an f.b.i. supervisor at the kobar towers, i had somebody who became a major figure in the c.i.a. and worked in the white house so it was like a magic moment and that's how, you know, it happened, some of the interviews were, you know, they were ray interviews that were rare and far between but it was snippets of stuff and beginning to get the time line and seeing where it happened and seeing where bin laden was and beginning to overlay it. it became a bigger project when i learned how complicated his personal life was but, you know, the women in his life were more than gracious and talked to me and i wove a lot of that into the book to be quite honest. i don't think i could have done a book by showing he was a great man, but he was a flawed man. he was a flawed man, too. anyone else? well, how about this gentleman first?

>> hi, mr. weiss, i was wondering why john o'neill who knew a lot about the 9-11 attack, no one listened to him. i wonder if that's changed at all today? >> why didn't they listen to john o'neill? i think there were a number of reasons. one was what i mentioned earlier, that the war -- the government liked tidy cases. you know, small cases, small problems, you know, if ramsay yousef and five other people, they can indict him and convict him, case closed. that's good. i think the f.b.i. is a bureaucracy, doesn't like hearing, you know, bigger cases. i think things fall between the crack because of the c.i.a. and the f.b.i. weren't communicating well enough. i think the white house during the -- at least as it relates to the terrorism issue and the islamic issue, they were distracted by the clinton administration. i have people giving really tremendous insight into that where bill clinton and the white house, his political handlers had much too much control over

what was done overseas. and the administration at least on this issue was extremely distracted. extremely distracted. that's why all those components came together really plus the united states public. the 1990's was a really roaring time here. the stock market was going through the roof, everybody was happy. you know? o.j. simpson was the biggest news around. and in fact, when o.j. simpson was on trial, the sheik ahman was on trial here in new york city. no one -- the attention that was paid to it by comparison is extraordinary. >> who do you see playing john o'neill in the movie? >> byron meshevski. i don't know who is going to play him in the movie. i have no thought about movies, my goal a year and a half ago was try to do 700 interviews, collate them, doing them long hand, type them into a computer

and then create the life of john o'neill. i'm happy to have accomplished that. that's fine. one more question. that will be it or two. >> hi, murray. did he ever change his views about the saudi royalty? >> can't hear the question. did he ever change his views with respect to saudi intelligence and the saudi royalty? >> have i changed my view towards saudi intelligence? >> no, do you know whether he did? >> did john o'neill. >> john o'neill and i quote him in the book saying he thought all the elements of dismantling osama bin laden's network was in saudi arabewra and all the clues were there. i think he recognized that as much as he tried to befriend them and had friends there he recognized there were duplicitous and their self-interest came first. i think now the saudis have really woken up, they can't continue to sit on sighted lines and take too many games until they took down the apartment houses in riyhad.

whole different story for them, i think. >> before he took his job, he told me -- i congratulated him on his new job. great job. so i just was concerned that's true. >> that's very kind of you. >> he says he knew john o'neill and 48 hours before he started his new job at the world trade center, he can confirm that john o'neill did say, i'm taking this job but they're going to attack the world trade center. he's actually a plant. >> the other question i wanted to ask you was did you investigate why didn't he get the information from phoenix and

michigan, i think, for the flight training? >> how come john o'neill didn't get the information from phoenix that middle eastern types might be taking training on planes and why he didn't get the memo out of michigan from agent rawley saying that they captured all that. the truth was john o'neill by that time was disillusioned and being squeezed out of the f.b.i. and in fairness, it was partly due to his own -- he made a few missteps and you get to a certain level of the f.b.i., you make missteps in a rigid bureuke racy like that, it's unforgiving unfortunately. reality was he was looking for a job. had he -- i can promise you had he seen either of those, the result could have been dramatically different.

his son actually missed a train by a minute or he would have been with him. listen, i'd like to thank all of you for coming and hearing me both speak and read, perhaps too much. i really -- extraordinary event for me, you worked very well for me. thank you. >> i'd like to thank mr. weiss for being here today. again, the book is "the man who warned america." thank you, borders customers for coming tonight. he'll be happy to sign copies of the book here. you can pay for the book after it's signed. thank you very much for coming.